Despite almost a year’s worth of delays and many years of development, Cyberpunk 2077‘s much-hyped launch has been marred by serious problems, particularly on the Xbox One and PS4. As a result, CD Projekt Red today released a public apology, including promises of forthcoming patches.
CD Projekt Red’s Apology for Cyberpunk 2077 Bugs
The studio’s apology starts by addressing one of the biggest controversies surrounding the Cyberpunk 2077 launch; the game’s poor performance on last-generation consoles. The studio released very little footage of the game prior to launch on those platforms. In fact, they even claimed that it performed “surprisingly good” on last-gen consoles. Most damning of all, the studio only released the better-performing PC version for reviews; indicating that they knew that last-gen console performance was subpar and intentionally hid that fact. As a result, many console players thought that the game would perform much better than it actually does.
“We would like to start by apologising to you for not showing the game on base last-gen consoles before it premiered,” reads the statement; “and, in consequence, not allowing you to make a more informed decision about your purchase. We should have paid more attention to making it play better on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.”
This statement is incredibly ironic, since Cyberpunk 2077 was originally due to launch many months before the next-gen consoles. In fact, just barely 12 months ago, CD Projekt Red claimed that they were prioritising a last-gen release and not thinking much about next-gen; a statement which clearly has not aged well.
Plans for Cyberpunk 2077 Patches and Refunds
According to CD Projekt Red’s apology, the next patch is due to arrive sometime in the next 7 days. Two larger patches are also in the works for January and February, respectively. According to CD Projekt Red, these updates together should; “fix the most prominent problems gamers are facing on last-gen consoles. […] They won’t make the game on last-gen look like it’s running on a high-spec PC or next-gen console, but it will be closer to that experience than it is now.”
The statement ends with a more surprising note; CD Projekt Red actively encouraging dissatisfied customers to seek a refund. “We would appreciate it if you would give us a chance,” they write; “but if you are not pleased with the game on your console and don’t want to wait for updates, you can opt to refund your copy”. In fact, the statement goes on to direct players to contact a special customer support email address [[email protected]] if players have trouble securing a refund through the retailer or online store through which they purchased their copy of the game. This email address will only be available to contact until the 21st of December, however.
Ultimately, given the enormous hype surrounding the game pre-launch, most players will likely choose to wait for the patches. However, there is no doubt that this launch has cost CD Projekt Red a huge amount of goodwill from fans. While Cyberpunk 2077 is undoubtedly a better game than Fallout 76, there are notable parallels to that infamous launch, in terms of how it shattered Bethesda’s public image. Even though Bethesda was able to fix most of the game’s bugs within a few months, the studio has never been able to fully recover from the blow to its reputation.
CD Projekt Red will have to work very hard to win back support going forward. With much widespread goodwill stripped away, many fans may start to look more critically at the studio’s use of crunch; a serious problem which has struggled to gain attention due to the hype surrounding Cyberpunk 2077 pre-launch.